The accumulation of snow and ice on the roofs and other surfaces of motor vehicles poses a serious hazard for drivers on the road. Blowing snow from the roofs of these motor vehicles can severely reduce visibility thereby increasing the risks of accidents. This problem is of particular concern for the drivers and/or owners/operators of commercial vehicles such as tractor trailers, as the trailer portion of these vehicles tends to present a large surface area upon which snow may accumulate, forming snow mounds, which in some cases may be several inches thick. Moreover, some jurisdictions have passed legislation making it illegal for the driver or owner/operator of a vehicle to allow snow or ice to fall from the vehicle on a public highway. As will be appreciated, the effect of this legislation has been to impose on these persons a legal obligation to clear snow from the roofs of their tractor trailers. In some cases, to comply with this legal requirement, drivers or employees have climbed atop the roofs of the tractor trailers and manually cleared them of snow and ice. The task can be physically demanding and time-consuming, and can present a significant safety hazard to the driver/employee as the roof is often very slippery. Additionally, the snow clearing operation may often be performed in less than ideal conditions (i.e. under the cover of darkness, in extremely cold temperatures and/or during a snowfall or winter storm).
Several attempts have been made in the past to facilitate the removal of snow and ice from the roofs of motor vehicles. One such example is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,356 issued to Candeletti. This patent relates to a snow scraping apparatus that includes a scraping assembly and a supporting assembly for holding the scraping assembly in a desired position. The scraping assembly has a scraping member that is oriented horizontally or parallel to the motor vehicle surface from which the accumulation of snow is to be removed. The scraping member is carried at height substantially the same or slightly higher than the roof of the motor vehicle such that when the motor vehicle passes beneath the scraping assembly, the scraping member contacts the roof of the motor vehicle and removes the snow from the roof. Additionally, the scraping assembly is provided with an elongate blade member that extends below the scraping member. The blade member is made of a yielding material sufficiently pliable to avoid damaging the roof surface when sliding contact is made therewith. In the preferred embodiment, the supporting assembly is in the form of a pair of upright members between which is mounted the scraping assembly. A height adjustment assembly is further provided to raise or lower the scraping assembly to a desired position to accommodate the height of the motor vehicle roof. In another embodiment, the supporting assembly has only one upright frame member to which is mounted an arm member in cantilevered fashion. Carried from the arm member is a resilient blade member. Also provided, is a rotatable brush member in the form of an auger brush that is mounted slightly above the arm and the blade member. A curved steel blade is placed adjacent the rear of the auger brush and serves to cast snow away from the roof when the auger brush is rotated.
While the scraping apparatus of Candeletti may be appropriate to clear snow from the roof of small motor vehicles (i.e. cars) it tends not be suitable for heavy-duty applications such as for the removal of accumulations of snow and ice from the roof surface of a tractor trailer. In particular, the scraping and blade members of the Candeletti apparatus would tend to be insufficiently robust and incapable of breaking thick layers of snow and ice on the roof of the tractor trailer.
Another approach to clearing snow from motor vehicle roofs was taken in U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,500 issued to Schmitt. This patent describes a vehicle snow removal system that includes a main frame and a snow blower assembly coupled to the main frame and lowerable therefrom onto the roof of the vehicle. The main frame has a rotatable auger for scraping snow from the roof of a vehicle passing through the main frame. The auger is contained within a blower housing. A squeegee assembly having a squeegee blade is mounted to the underside of the snow blower assembly. When the snow blower assembly is lowered onto the roof, the squeegee blade contacts the roof and prevents the snow blower assembly from damaging the roof of the commercial vehicle as well as squeegeeing any watery snow or ice off the roof A directional chute is coupled to the blower housing for directing the snow displaced by the auger into a holding bin.
While the vehicle roof snow removal system of Schmitt tends to be better suited for removing snow and ice from the roofs of commercial vehicles and constitutes an advancement over the device of Candeletti by virtue of its more robust and durable construction, it tends to suffer from several drawbacks. In some cases where the vehicle roofs had large accumulations of snow and ice, the squeegee blade would tend not to be effective in clearing the roof of these accumulations in a single pass of the vehicle through the main frame. In those circumstances, multiple passes would likely be required which would tend to be time-consuming.
In light of the foregoing, it would be advantageous to have an apparatus for clearing snow from the roof of commercial vehicles that is well adapted for heavy-duty use and that is capable of removing relatively large snow and ice accumulations rapidly and efficiently while obviating the disadvantages associated with the prior art devices and preventing damage to the roof of the commercial vehicles.